


An Artistic Night In

by Pancake_Prince



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 13:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17183672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pancake_Prince/pseuds/Pancake_Prince
Summary: Leaving everything to the last second, Akira is left to run around Shibuya to find the perfect decorations.





	An Artistic Night In

“Akiraaa.”

The former Phantom Thief stirs in his sleep, hearing his name being called out in his dreams. When it suddenly gets cold, he opens his eyes and finds that his covers are on the floor, one of the ends held in Morgana’s teeth, “Jeez it’s about time you woke up!”

“Huh?” Akira asks groggily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with his palms. Once his eyes adjust to the brightness of the familiar attic room he was staying at for the holidays, he pats around the windowsill for his glasses, and when he finds those, his phone.

He finds multiple texts from most of his confidants, wishing him well and occasionally asking him if he had some time today to visit them. Unfortunately, having already woken up at noon he had very little time to do what he was supposed to do, let alone meet up with some friends.

There was always next time, Akira thought, sighing out loud.

Getting out of his bed, he puts his phone in his pocket and begins getting ready for the day.

* * *

Akira picks up a set of baubles in yet another shop in Shibuya but none of them seem quite right. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t really have an idea of what could be considered the perfect Christmas decorations since he’s hardly ever celebrated it before, but he knows that he’ll eventually find the ones that’ll not only look perfect to him, but more importantly to Yusuke too.

He sighs deeply when he puts away the ones in his hand, Morgana looking over his shoulder, “What was wrong with those?! Akira, we’ve already been looking for three hours, we’re running out of time!”

Akira hums, still deep in thought while looking over the shelf, but his fighting instincts suddenly kick in when he feels someone looking at him from behind, something that even in the last year through the lack of travelling across the Metaverse he was unable to shake off, and he swiftly turns around.

“Ah!” Ann exclaims, not expecting his sudden movements, while Makoto smiles in the back and shakes her head.

“Same as always, Joker,” Makoto jokes and leans over to look at the baubles in Akira’s hand, “Are you sure about those?”

Akira looks between the baubles and the two girls, then slowly puts them back on the shelf, “Uh, no…?”

“Have you got anything ready at all?” Ann asks, and Akira sheepishly shakes his head, “Jeez Akira, don’t you have only like four hours until Yusuke finishes up his project?”

“…maybe?” He replies, again sheepishly.

Ann grabs him by the arm and pulls him away from the display shelf, “Come on, lover boy, let’s go find some decorations for you together.”

* * *

The bells chime in Leblanc as Akira struggles to pass through the door with all of the bags in his hands, “Did the tree arrive?” He asks Sojiro who was, as usual, standing behind the bar and drying a cup. All the while, Futaba was sitting at the bar eating curry while Ryuji sits in the booth at the back, playing on his phone.

“Don’t worry kid, I already put it upstairs for you.”

“Thanks,” Akira says, trying to catch his breath while he dumps some of the bags into a booth.

Sojiro puts the cup away and with his gruff voice says, “It was blocking the door and customers thought we were closing up. You should’ve bought a smaller tree.”

“That’s not true!” Futaba shouts with her mouth full. She swallows her food before continuing, “Sojiro’s totally lying. He just did it to make things easier for you. He complained loads though.”

Akira looks at Sojiro for a reaction, but just as he expected, the owner of the café remains quiet, cleaning behind the bar. Akira smiles and begins pulling out the decorations, setting them on the table. This prompts Ryuji to shift out from the booth he was sitting in to observe Akira. At one point he picks up one of the boxes of baubles and hums sceptically, “Are you sure he’ll like these…?”

“Huh? What? Why wouldn’t he like them?!” Akira drops the box with the tinsel in it and leans over to look at the baubles.

Taking an interest in what they were doing, Futaba hops out of her bar stool and takes out some of the decorations Akira bought, “Yeah, they’re a little… uh, simple? I dunno, I feel like Inari would prefer something a bit more complex maybe,” Futaba raises and eyebrow, “you’d think you would know better, huh?”

Panic flashes across Akira’s face, pulling out his phone to check the time, “I have no time to get any other ones, and I couldn’t find anything better before, so Ann and Makoto helped me and-.”

“They’re still in town yeah?” Ryuji asks, setting the baubles down on the table, “Just ask ‘em to get somethin’ else for ya.”

Akira nods quickly, pulling out his phone and dialling the first number in his contacts. The person on the other side picks up after two rings, “You’ve gotta help me again!” He says in a panicked tone while Ryuji and Futaba help him carry everything upstairs.

Unfortunately, he realises too late just how much he should’ve been paying attention when dialling the number, since it’s not Ann’s voice that replies, but rather the voice of a former detective, “What have you managed to screw up this time, Akira? It’s the decorations, yes?”

“What?” Akira scratches his head, half tempted to just hang up on him then and there and explain his strange behaviour when he has more time, “Well, yeah, how’d you… actually never mind, I don’t have time for that. Maybe you can actually help. Apparently, I got the wrong decorations and I don’t have time to go back and look for more.”

Akechi’s surprisingly quick to answer, “You could simply make an activity of decorating your attic.”

“I don’t follow.”

He goes on to explain further, “If you’re able to obtain some paints or other crafting materials, you could just use the opportunity to alter the decorations into something more suited to your needs. Finding such materials is far easier than finding the ideal decorations, no?”

That was surprisingly helpful for him, Akira thinks, “Uh, yeah, that’s a really good idea actually.”

“You sound surprised,” Akechi’s tone remains light, but Akira knows better.

Akira rolls his eyes, once again tempted to just hang up, however this time he may feel somewhat guilty for not thanking him properly, “I didn’t mean to,” he lies, “But thanks, Akechi. I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow for the secret Santa thing Ann’s making us do, yeah?”

There’s a chuckle on the other side, “Of course. Good luck.”

The line goes dead and when he goes to his next contact, Akira pays more attention to who he’s calling,

“Haru? Hey, I need a huge favour.”

* * *

“You’re a lifesaver!” Akira exclaims as soon as Haru walks through the doors of Leblanc, her face blocked by the box and all the things she brought specifically for him and Yusuke, “I don’t know how I can repay you.”

Haru sets the boxes down on the table where Akira had previously set his own purchases down. By now, Ryuji had gone home to help out his mum with dinner while Futaba ran off to watch the newest episode of Phoenix Featherman. Since Sojiro locked up earlier tonight, that left only him and Haru in the café, “Oh it’s no problem at all,” she reassures him with a smile, “Although I suppose I would appreciate your help with my coffee when you’re next free. I would love to know what you think of it.”

Akira gets off the stool he was sitting on and looks over the decorations, “Doesn’t sound like that much of a chore to me. But… how did you get all of this on such short notice?”

“Oh… well I happen to know some of the creative team that works for Okumura Foods PR department, and many of them prefer making first drafts traditionally before switching over to digital designs,” Haru begins to explain, “They were kind enough to let me borrow all of this, although I will have to return it all in two days’ time.”

“I just need it for tonight I think,” Akira says before suddenly hugging her, “Thanks for this, seriously you saved me.”

Haru giggles and happily returns the hug, “As I said, it was no problem. Although I’m sure Yusuke would have loved your Christmas tree no matter what the design because you’re the one who made it. This is more special, I suppose. It’s a great idea!”

Akira pulls away, showing his awkward expression as he looks down at the floor and rubs the back of his neck, “Uh yeah, not exactly my idea but I’ll let them know you liked it too.”

Haru looks back at the clock on the wall and gasps, “Oh dear, I promised to meet with Makoto soon, so I must get going. But I do hope that you and Yusuke have a lot of fun!” She readjusts the purse hanging off of her shoulder and quickly patters over to the door. The bells chime once more when she opens it, “I shall see you tomorrow then! Bye!” She smiles and waves at him, and he returns the wave.

* * *

There’s a knock on the door of the closed café, and Akira gets out of his stool to go open it. Knowing exactly who it is, he opens the door, reaches out and grabs the guest by his shirt, pulling him into a deep kiss.

The guest is too shocked at first to respond, but he soon relaxes and melts into the kiss. Which is when Akira pulls away teasingly with a cheeky grin, moving his hand down and around until he hits Yusuke’s hand and pulls him further into the café, “Come on, we have work to do.”

“W-work?” Yusuke asks, still a little caught off guard as he stumbles behind Akira, “I thought you summoned me here initially so that we could-.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll do that later,” Akira looks back to give him a wink, then continues up the stairs, “So this idea, uh, came to me,” Akira figures he can spare Yusuke the details of his adventures some other time, “And I thought maybe we could make our own decorations this year instead huh?”

They get to the top of the stairs where Akira’s room is a mess. There’s a white sheet spread across the floor which seems to already have a stain left from some split paint and various materials hang off the bed, desk and couch. Akira rubs his neck awkwardly with his free hand, “Yeah so… I kinda got carried away before you got here.”

Yusuke chuckles and pulls Akira to turn him around to face him, “You are far too concerned with how I will react to this,” he puts a hand to Akira’s cheek tenderly, “Akira, no matter what you would have done, I would always appreciate the effort you have put into this,” he brings him closer and pulls him into a sweet, prolonged kiss, “Although this idea is quite… interesting.”

Yusuke lets go of Akira and strides over to the baubles and paints Akira had collected throughout the day, “Very well. Let us begin.”

* * *

“Yusuke it’s fine, the tree looks amazing. Let’s just go to sleep now-,”

“No! It has to be perfect!”

“...why do I have to fall for the art types.”

“What was that?”

“Don’t worry about it!”

Hours later only half of the attic is decorated while the rest of it is covered in paint. If Sojiro ever sees it Akira’s bound to spend a whole week of lecturing and overtime hours at the café. If he woke up early enough maybe he could clean it all up before anyone else found out…

By now, he’s given up convincing Yusuke to come to bed and instead throws and pulls the tinsel in his hand each time Morgana tries to catch it.

“Akira stop it! I’m not going to be so easily fooled you know-,” the cat keeps saying right before falling into the same trap, “Give it to me!” He whines but Akira keeps fooling around. When he does eventually get bored, he gets out of bed and goes downstairs to make the two of them coffee.

The café is silent save for the brewing coffee and Akira’s occasionally buzzing phone as the former Phantom Thieves get hyped up for Christmas. He checks it occasionally, but he doesn’t bother answering since by now its mostly Makoto and Akechi telling everyone to go to sleep, Ryuji and Ann completely ignoring them, Futaba replying only in reaction images and memes and Haru clearly lurking in the chat as shown by her reading every new message that pops up, just as Akira is doing.

When the coffee’s done, Akira puts his phone away and heads back upstairs only to find his boyfriend in the exact same position as before, his absence clearly gone unnoticed amidst the artists concentration. Akira rolls his eyes and places the coffee down on the desk, taking his own with him to bed.

“Did you not want to go to sleep?” Yusuke asks without even turning to him.

“Mhm, but since you’ll be working all night, I wanted to keep you company. Besides, I’m really enjoying the view.”

Akira doesn’t need Yusuke looking his way to know that the latter is blushing from his comment. The uptick at the ends of Yusuke’s mouth is enough for Akira’s heart to flutter.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've written for this ship and I hope I did it justice! I really enjoyed this and it was a nice break from my usual stuff, so I hope you all enjoy it too!


End file.
